


Fireworks

by Assadis



Series: Fleeting and Fragile [2]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: 1931, Birthday, Childhood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-04
Updated: 2017-07-04
Packaged: 2018-11-23 10:42:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11400897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Assadis/pseuds/Assadis
Summary: The first birthday Steve spends with his new best friend.





	Fireworks

July 4th, 1931. 

It would be a birthday Steve would always remember as one of the happiest days in his life.   
It had been a day he had not spent alone in the apartment or the streets waiting for his mother to come home from work.  
It had been a birthday he had not spent lying shivering under thin sheets despite the heavy New York summer heat.  
It had been a day he had not spent scared pressed into a dusty corner to escape a beating. 

Instead, it had been a day on which two little gifts had sat on his nightstand when he awoke.   
It had been the first birthday on which he had a best friend.   
A day on which he had been able to share the cake with another boy.   
It had been the birthday he would learn that the annual fireworks were – in fact – just for him. 

Bucky had picked a spot on a scaffold right at the waterside where they could sit down and dangle their feet above the river. Here, no building would obstruct their view. They were both giddy with the excitement of being out so late. Steve’s mother had waved when they sprang down the stairs and smiled – this was a day of celebration and not staying at home. She knew that her boy was safe with his friend.

When the hour of the show drew near, more people gathered. But in their enclosed corner, they could only catch their excitement and add it to their own without feeling disturbed.   
Steve kept chatting and pointing at things that caught his attention. Usually he was in bed at this time of the day. Even on his birthday, he would mostly look at what little he could see from the fireworks through his window.   
But he immediately fell silent when the first stars crackled across the sky, along with the anticipating murmuring that rumbled through the crowd.   
He just sat there, completely still, face turned upward and an expression of wonder and utter happiness on his bony features.   
For a moment, Bucky watched the fireworks in the stunned blue of Steve’s eyes. 

“Look Steve”, whispered the older boy after a while, set on giving his friend another gift, this one not wrapped in bright expensive paper. “They shine just for you.”  
“But…”, the blond laughed, refusing to believe him. Everyone knew why these lights were kindled. “It’s because of the old war, dummy. Because of our freedom. Because we’re a country of heroes. Everyone knows that!”  
“No…”. Bucky would not let himself to be made fun of and his voice remained matter of fact - as if everyone knew that he was right and Steve was just too young to have learned until now. “They are for you – so you know that you can be a hero.”  
They did not speak anymore then but looked into the sky. The dancing sparks reflected in their round, admiring eyes while they dreamt of being heroes one day.


End file.
